Darlington County - Darlington County Fire District responded to a reported fire at Lanes Steel Scrap at 9:38 am on Sunday morning, March 19, 2006.
Four engines and four tankers initially arrived on scene to find a large pile of crushed vehicles on fire. Mutual aid was requested for two ladder trucks from Hartsville and Darlington city departments. As the fire continued to increase, all of Darlington County's 11 Stations were summoned to respond Tankers, because of lack of water supply at the scrap yard.
There were numerous explosions from the fire, sending one firefighter to the hospital that was struck by flying debris. He was released and later returned to duty.
The results of one of the explosions started several addition scrap pile fires, and the South Carolina Firefighter Mobilization Plan was activated.
Departments from Florence, Lee, Chesterfield, Marlboro, and Sumter counties were on scene. Several trucks from as far as the Columbia area were responding, but they were cancelled in route.
At one time, there were nearly 150 firefighters and nearly 30 trucks were operating on this scene.
The fire was finally extinguished early Monday morning, and all units were cleared by 1pm, nearly 27 hours later.
